Posted on 02/26/2006 3:12:31 AM PST by Pharmboy
Barry Wetcher/HBO
Edie Falco as Carmela, the wife of Tony Soprano, who is played by James Gandolfini.
HIGH on the wall of the otherwise-nondescript conference room inside the production offices of "The Sopranos" hangs a small, framed photograph of a man with his face half shadowed by a fedora.
Ambling by in his lumbering gait, slowed by a slight limp from a recent leg injury, James Gandolfini stopped to take a look at the photo. "Who's that?" he asked.
"Fellini," said David Chase.
Federico Fellini might seem an odd choice to oversee the room where an American television series is planned, but why not? Has there ever been one that was richer, more dense with the complexities of family life in all its connotations and yes, more atmospherically Italian (Italian-American in this case) than "The Sopranos"? "It's all a big discovery process," said Mr. Chase, the creator and executive producer of the series, summing up how it has all unfolded. "Actually, I think Fellini said making a movie is like a voyage."
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
James Gandolfini, left, and David
Chase on the set of "The
Sopranos."
The voyage of "The Sopranos" has been among the most celebrated in television history. The series, the most popular ever on cable television, is a force to be reckoned with across the whole landscape of the medium, and even the larger culture. No two people have been more instrumental in guiding that voyage than Mr. Chase, whose hand has been on every episode in the show's seven-year run, and Mr. Gandolfini, a three-time Emmy winner for best actor, who has brought Mr. Chase's central character, Tony Soprano, to vivid, visceral life.
In a joint interview at Silvercup Studios in Queens, where the interiors for "The Sopranos"
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That show is the only conceivable reason I can think of to have HBO.
Is it ending this year, or not?
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
12 episodes this year and a mini-season of 8 more next year--and that's it.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Yep...could not agree more. Just a brilliant show.
I think Edie Falco is really unfairly slighted in this article. To me she has always made the show, watching her play Carmela is pure joy.
Agreed. She steals every scene she is in. Carm is the focal point of the series...
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